Dripping Red
by Crow Dragonwolf
Summary: Natasha never expected she would have to work alongside a person she hated. But then... He really had volunteered. Friendship fic. Natasha/Loki. The others will come in later.
1. Surprises and Disguises

Natasha was not the sort to react to inconveniences. She could and did get annoyed but at least then her employers, including Fury, were willing to listen to her suggestions. Maybe even inform her of problems beforehand so that she could make things less of a problem. Today, apparently, was not her day.

She had received a page sometime this morning with a rather cryptic message that included coming alone. No bringing her partner, but not romantic partner, along with her to the meeting place. So come alone she did wearing a blond wig, a dress suit and liberal amounts of make up. High heels clicked against marble floor as she moved past shield's secretaries with ease. Even if her disguise had not included a ID card that passed system tests she would be let through.

Those who had the skills to recognize who she was knew better then to really stop her in disguise. Those who didn't… Her disguise was registered as a high secretary that meant she worked mostly on the more classified levels and, in turn, would mean she was less likely to be seen around. However, she had strengthened this by coming in some days under this identity. It was a welcome break from the terror most had at Black Widow. It was a chance at a temporary peace in a differing identity.

Oh they were not supposed to discriminate against her… She had been working for a while for SHIELD. But it was hard for people to trust a person who kept up a shield as strong as the organization or with a ledger as dripping in the blood of not only enemies but allies. She paid no mind… They were in a different world from hers even as they worked in the same organization and she was used to this emptiness.

Why had she dressed up in disguise when she didn't care? There could be surveillance by enemy and no defence is completely perfect. As well… Just because she was more the type to be straightforward, she preferred the action part of being a spy to disguises, didn't mean she let her disguise skills become flat. An assassin who let her skills lose sharpness will end up dead.

Taking her disguise to work was really only a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of Director Fury requests. She went to the bathroom and removed her disguise. As she did she let light thoughts, the closest thing she had to existential her mind allowed. trickle in What was the director calling her for?

Being called in this way meant an individual mission, most likely, from the Avengers. Occasionally she had separate briefing from but considering the long pause in time of them being called and the fact that Steve was the main leader of the group yet had not been called in… Indicated the mission was most likely individual.

Was it a spying mission? An assassination mission? An Escort mission? No… An assassination mission would have Clint called first in order to be reminded of the proper procedures if she acted up and he tended to be her back up regardless. An interrogation or assassination? Probably since those two were much shorter and it was easier for Fury to keep her on his leash. Most likely it would be an interrogation.

At least she would not be bored. Nat walked into the office and then suddenly decided boredom would be preferable. She blinked once and then twice, her clear blue eyes gazing at the Director himself instead of the familiar figure who should not be here. "What is he doing here?"


	2. Laid Bare Honest Intentions

Fury leaned back in his chair and tapped the desk lightly. A gesture that was generally done if he wanted someone to pay attention and if something was bugging him. Fortunately Natasha did not have to guess here why he was frustrated although many questions that she had in her head, like Why in the hell Loki was here, had to be paused for this temporary silence. She sat quite patiently and could admire how much control she still had even after discovering an enemy.

"Former enemy." A voice said, the smooth voice of the green eyed man who when she looked had been looking at her intently. She took a deep breath and exhaled in a way that better fit a sigh. "My apologies, although you are not easy to read, that is just about how anyone would react in this position. I assure you as of currently I am no threat as Director Fury may assess." Loki was leaning against the chair. He seemed a great deal healthier than when she had first saw him but the differences from when she last saw him were startling. It was easy to see him as the more intelligent and aristocratic brother that Thor talked about occasionally with the voice of a person betrayed. But she was not the emotional sort and she had done her own change so she wondered what this aristocrat was doing here without his keeper.

The director had this twitch above his left eye that made her rather glad she had not been alone with him again. Though she would not have easily met him alone in the first place without a fight. "He walked in about thirty minutes ago asking about repaying his debt." Fury told her. "He assures me, although I don't trust him at all that Thor does not know he is out of his cage and that meeting in the dead center of SHIELD headquarters even if he fought us off Thor would be there in time to recapture him."

Rather than outright study, Natasha opted for staring at Loki. Prone to staring she was not but this seemed out of character for the trickster. Loki was the type for flashy crimes and this sort of menace to him. These actions... Lacked both and it left her trying to grip something familiar in his form even if it was just the structure of his face. Because his eyes were missing that light blue that marked the invasion and he had not come with that staff of his. He had truly isolated himself without his babysitter and protector in order to say something. She felt it was within her character to listen at the very least to what he wished to say rather than look at the window and longingly hope he would go away. He looked to her and then to Fury, reading verbal cues most likely, before starting.

"I am not innocent by any means but I owe a debt." Loki started, putting his fingers together, a sigh putting the slightest hint of age on his face. "I am not an unbloodied warrior, I have killed before in battles alongside Thor, but killing within a battle is different from slaughter. My invasion was distasteful to my sensibilities so I wish to wipe my ledger clean with Midgard. I wish to offer myself in disguise under the guidance of you and your assassin. Before any protest, the guise is so my fool of a... So Thor does not get all sentimental." There was a struggle with the last line. A moment of weakness, pain in his eyes and tightening of his hands, even as he stayed fairly calm in his face. His eyes were far too expressive for a trickster and she wondered how she kept people from reading him normally... Unless he was not even trying.

A god of lying having some truthfulness, fascinating if not a bit surprising to discover. Yet the director and herself have been far too long in this game to even trust the expression of a past enemy that was crying the most sincere looking crocodile tears. "And why should we trust you?" Fury asked him, almost slamming his hands against the table as he stood up, the pinnacle of the interrogator and the reason the Director's office was soundproof. "Sure you have come alone but you lie and deceive. That is in your job description. Yet you say you'll work with us solely for redemption. Tell me your angle."

Loki gave a sigh of long suffering and within her she could feel something so perverse as a giggle as the trickster rubbed his brow. "Do you think I would demean myself to beings I long considered inferior just for an idle trick?" He stated plainly. "I wish to study Midgardians... I had not been to Midgard for ages until I led the invasion. Before that time you mortals were fighting with spears, bows and maybe magic in subpar conditions. After my loss... I simply wish to revise my view. I give my word to answer honestly if Natasha requests information I shall give it but to no one else will I promise this honesty."

Natasha blinked and then gave as close to a genuine smile as she got, a closed mouth smile that barely curved the edges of her mouth which vanished an instant after it showed, before standing up. "I can do this assignment sir." She answered to the Director. "If there is any sense of being compromised I will report to you." She gave a nod at the question in his eyes, just very brief, at which point the director sighed.

"He should be in a prison..." The director grumbled to her amusement. "Keep him under guard until I make up a temporary identity for him under the name he came under. For now he is Patrick Fárbautason. You two may go now." Natasha gave a nod of acknowledgement and lead a now red haired with blue eyes Loki out of the office while being careful of her back.


End file.
